A look back at our favorites stories in fashion beauty, style, wellness, travel, and more
5,4,3,2,1, H-A-P-P-P-Y N-E-W Y-E-A-R!!! And, what a fantastic year it was…
I wanted to honestly bring you the best of 2009 from FocusOnStyle– it’s our 10th year online and our best yet. Selecting content to highlight became the dilemma of a mother choosing her favorite child. How could I possibly make exception? What about the others? It’s more karmic damage than I’m willing to tinker with.
Instead, I’ve culled some of the more timeless and sage pieces that will have you looking in check from now until the time you feel the mood to modify your look– something you really need to renew, at most, every five years.
FocusOnStyle doesn’t stop at fashion.
I believe that style comes from wherever YOU find it– there’s beauty, travel, wellness, sexpert chic, some good ol’ fashion advice, runway reviews, fashion shows, and fun sprinkles to add to the mix.
Can-do chic is a cinch when you know where to look. And in this economy, we all need to rethink our shopping. But we have some shopping guides too, just in case your want to treat yourself.
When you revisit the FocusOnStyle flashbacks, do take the time to peek at our Contributors as they are some of the best that anyone could ever want -all are the real deal who absolutely practice what they preach. You couldn’t ask for a better team to help you make the most of what you’ve got!
Have a fantastic 2010!
Keep on styling,
ps
Bookmark this page, I know you’ll want to come back.
FASHION ADVICE
Michelle Obama Style: Today’s power dressing muse is all about Clean Chic
Michelle Obama Style: Today’s power dressing muse
By Sharon Haver
Dear Sharon: As a corporate executive in a slightly conservative firm, I am always afraid to take fashion risks, yet I still want to look stylish. I usually dress in suits that are starting to bore me. I have been taken by Michelle Obama’s style and feel that I can find some comfort with it on a business level. I’m not quite sure about what makes the First Lady’s style work, but I do find it interesting and business appropriate. Please help me decipher a plan to diversify my wardrobe.
Pose Like A Celebrity: Elle Macpherson
How to Pose Like A Celebrity: Elle Macpherson
By Sharon Haver
Red carpet posing tips to make you look just as amazing. It’s that time of year where we all get snapped more than ever. What with summer parties, June weddings, graduations, and the big vacation on the calendar, we need to be a little.
How to Wear a Scarf- Video Tips
By Sharon Haver
10 Ways to Wear a Scarf from the Sharon Haver for About.com at Barney’s New York Style Video Series
The first of my Style Video Series for About.com is released and I’d love to share the video with you. Scarves are so on trend right now and please watch for some helpful how-to tips on how to make a scarf a fantastic accessory in your wardrobe!
Petite Fashion Tips to Look Taller from the Sharon Haver for About.com at Lord & Taylor New York Petite Video Series
How to Dress to Look Taller – Video Tips
By Sharon Haver
Petite Fashion Tips to Look Taller from the Sharon Haver for About.com at Lord & Taylor New York Petite Video Series. Haven’t you ever seen a celebrity or met someone in the flesh and said to yourself, “Gee, they seem so much smaller in person?” Well, it’s not that they “seem” smaller, they know how to dress to look taller.
Call My Stylist: Leopard doesn’t have to be tricky to wear
By Sharon Haver
What shoes to wear with a leopard dress. I just bought this gorgeous leopard print dress and was curious about what kind of shoes to wear with it. The dress itself is on the shorter side (above the knee) but fits perfectly.
RUNWAY REVIEWS
NY Fashion Week: Rebecca Taylor Spring / Summer 2010
NY Fashion Week: Yigal Azrouel Spring / Summer 2010
By Andrea Perini / VagabondNYC
Rebecca Taylor’s spring 2010 collection was one of her best to date. For Spring 2010 Rebecca Taylor did not deny her fans her signature flippy silk skirts, romantic mini-florals, and bright liberty printed slip tops, bags and sandals. I left feeling I’d had a balanced meal and imagined how easily it would be to fit those pieces into my own color phobic wardrobe.
London Fashion Week: Burberry Prorsum Spring / Summer 2010
By Kirsty Armstrong
Christopher Bailey has given the trench a new-found attitude. It’s not just a coat, it’s a Burberry Prorsum trench coat.
It was the hottest ticket of London Fashion Week and the much-anticipated Burberry Prorsum Spring/Summer 10 show impressed a star-studded audience with perfect pastel shades and trench coats with attitudeů
NY Fashion Week: Yigal Azrouel Spring / Summer 2010
By Naveed Hussain / VagabondNYC
Yigal Azrouel did have his highly desirable outerwear on full display alongside some great contrasting cocktail frocks, some 80’s sex-pot sliced swimwear and some 10+ menswear looks that were some of the strongest options for men New York has seen for quite some time.
FASHION & STYLE
In Their Words: Fashion Designer Eyola Shares Personal Style Secrets
In Their Words: Fashion Designer Eyola Shares Personal Style Secrets
By Eyola
Simple 5-Step DIY Plan to Personal Style. The success of fashion lies in differentiation and paving a new way forward. Becoming fashion forward involves an individual vision, continuously transforming yourself and transforming people’s stereotypical perceptions of fashion. This recipe has proven successful with the likes of early fashion protagonists Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and Paul Poiret. Coco Chanel strived to incorporate the power of personality to her designs by inventing her own way of personal expression.
Manolo Blahnik Spring Preview 2010 & The World’s Largest Shoe Department
Manolo Blahnik Spring Preview 2010 & The World’s Largest Shoe Department
By Richard Nahem
To make all you shoe fanatics jealous, I had the distinct pleasure of attending two major shoe events in the same day- the Manolo Blahnik spring preview and the unveiling of the world’s largest shoe department at Galeries Lafayette, Paris.
Paris Fashion Week Street Chic and around the London Showrooms
By Tinko Czetwertynski
Street style and off the runway looks seen around Paris Fashion Week where the British Fashion Council set up London Showrooms with designers Mark Fast, Marjan Pejoski, Atalanta Weller, LPBG, and Mary Katrantzou amongst others.
I’ll Have What She’s Having: Penelope Cruz Glams Up Biker Chic
By Sharon Haver
How to wear a biker jacket and look chic, that’s the question of the day!The iconic biker jacket always conjures up images of edgy, care-free style. What to wear to a formal but not fussy event can be tricky. Penelope Cruz seamlessly masters biker chic in an off-handed wearable glam way that is very European and quite simple to pull off.
BEAUTY
How to get those smokey eyes like Mary-Kate Olsen
How to get those smokey eyes like Mary-Kate Olsen
By Brigitte Bigeard
Love the look of smokey eyes but don’t want to look like a squirrel? Makeup tips to get it right. We have all been in the mood for the sultry, sexy, smokey look at one time or another. Mary-Kate Olson’s glam makeup makes us swoon. Some people prefer a more dramatic look which is thicker. A more natural smokey look will be thinner and cleaner. Here are some makeup tips to get smokey eyes.
Take the fright out of winter damaged hair with protein hair conditioners
By Max Ryan
If you are like many of us at this cold and dry time of year, your hair is, how shall I sayů scary! This is especially true on the days when it is so dry that the electricity in the air makes your hair look like a fright movie. Expand that crazy frizz if you have chemically treated hair. Don’t get me startedů you have got yourself a recipe for dry, damaged and downright scary hair!
Makeup Junkie: Bridal Makeup and the Hardsell Cosmetic Counter Makeover(!?!)
By MJ, The Makeup Junkie
Pre-Wedding Rituals: Strange Encounters of the Cosmetic Counter Kindů I love makeup. We all know this. This is why my traincases don’t close, my heart flutters when MAC releases a new collection, and I still think that I will one day find a mascara that will change my life. However, one thing threatens to spoil this perfect love. Overzealous cosmetics counter people. Eyeshadow is NOT a weapon!
TRENDS
Faux Fur Chubbies are oh so chic
Faux Fur Chubbies are oh so chic
By Sharon Haver
The Fuzzy-Wuzzy Party Must-Have Jacket is even better in a shot of color. What happens when you marry two hot trends? You get instant party glamour! The fierce trend in fake fur is riding high.
Lady Gaga flaunts the best lace lingerie
By Sharon Haver
Take her cue to get your sexy on Since we first watched Lady Gaga’s romp in her ‘Bad Romance’ video yesterday, we have all been a gaga about some sexy lingerie. Now, we all agree that Lady Gaga is one of the most incredible contemporary performance artists. Through her music and her look, she has raised the public’s awareness to video as an art form, once again.
Lady Gaga flaunts the best lace lingerie
Rain Boots. Rubber Soles Style Up
By Team FocusOnStyle
Puddle jumpers pretty enough for all weather. We’re so excited that rain boots went up a notch. Gone are the too-cute for a grown-up prissy prints of the past few seasons and here are rubber boots that are chic enough to wear in any weather.
Los Angeles Style on a Budget: Naven in Color and a chat with Khloe Kardashian
By Elizabeth Quintanilla
Bright Lights and Minis, Oh My! One of the hottest trends this season has been far and away the bold use of color and the latest collection by LA-based twin designers Kym and Alexis McClay have definitely hit that nail on the head.
WELLNESS
PMS Tips: Beat Pre-Menstrual Perturbances! By Aimee E. Raupp
Feeling Spent? 5 Easy Ways To Overcome Exhaustion
By Dr. Frank Lipman
Tired of feeling tired? Tips to revitalize your body to feel more alive, energized, and even happy from the Spent Solutions program developed by Dr. Frank Lipman to combat modern exhaustion. I grew up in South Africa, where music and its ritual use are a very important part of the way of life in traditional African cultures. What I did not know then, was that my love for music and rhythm, would be a portal into understanding the way I see health today.
PMS Tips: Beat Pre-Menstrual Perturbances!
By Aimee E. Raupp
Top 10 favorite tips to keep your hormones in check and beat PMS. Here it comesů that time of the month, again! A break out on your chin, emotions swirling, a bloat that wasn’t there last week and breasts twice the size! What to do?
Anti-Aging Beauty Tips: Aging Backwards 101
By Jackie Silver
How to feel younger in a snap. People ask me all the time, ôWhat is Aging Backwards?ö It’s not a magic pill or lotion or potion, we wish, but it is a series of small habits that, when incorporated into your daily life, can yield big results. Someone said to me recently, ôLook at you, you just sit around and have beauty treatments all day long, don’t you?ö
TRAVEL
The Ultimate Reykjavik Shopping Guide
On the Road: Authentic western looks are more romance than reality. by Sharon Haver
by Jenia Molnar
Don’t Give Shopping the Cold Shoulder in Icelandů While shopping might not be the first reason you booked a plane ticket to Iceland – perhaps it’s to traverse lunar-like volcanic landscapes, be mesmerized by endless waterfalls, soak in steamy geothermal pools or merely renew your charter membership in the Bjork fan club – there is plenty getting and spending to be done here. The city center of Reykjavik lets you scratch that shopping itch with fun, elegant and/or quirky clothes and accessories.
Vietnam bound? The ultimate shopping guide for the custom tailors of Hoi An
By Alix Kivlin
Alix and Colin are almost midway through their trip around the world. Their global backpacking adventure to all points exotic took a very chic turn when they stopped off to sample the custom clothing and shoes from the tailors and cobblers in H?i An, a city located in the South Central Coast of Vietnam.
On the Road: Authentic western looks are more romance than reality
By Sharon Haver
City slicker fashion peeps have a romantic and idolized view of Western clothing. We assume that the fabulous fringe, perfectly worn in cowboy boots, dusty dark jeans, and delicately beaded belts are an easy find in any shop in a town where lodgepole pine outweighs cement or old time shoot Ĺem up references still apply.
SEXPERT CHIC
How to pull off a convincing burlesque strip tease By Gentry Lane
How to pull off a convincing burlesque strip tease
By Gentry Lane
Vintage style and burlesque strip tease go hand in hand, but how to combine the two without looking silly? There are three obligatory rules to pull of a convincing burlesque strip.
Bringing sexy back, without feeling foolish
By Ethan Imboden
Any relationship can cool off, and when it does, it can be daunting to try to heat it back up. Anyone who’s made failed attempts to do so knows that it can be a risky proposition. At Jimmyjane, we get a lot of emails asking how to heat things up again, so we thought we’d share some suggestions with you. Desperate times may call for desperate measures, but here are a few that won’t feel quite so desperate.
How to Be a Chic Parisianista Tip #2: Wear Nice Underwear
By La Mom Paris
French women wear nice underwear all the time. It’s not just for special occasions, dates, job interviews, or parties. It’s second nature, like wearing Dior perfume or making crepes!